Facebook Murderer's Ex-Girlfriend Speaks To Victim's Family

Steve Stephens, who killed himself during a police pursuit earlier this week, murdered an elderly man and streamed the video on social media. Now, Stephens' ex-girlfriend, Joy Lane, has met with the family of her former lover's victim in a conversation that was described of as "therapeutic" by all parties.

According to People, Stephens had forced his victim to say the name of his ex shortly before shooting him on camera. “She’s the reason that this is about to happen to you," he had claimed.

“I feel bad. The last thing that he would have said was my name and didn’t know me or why he was saying it. And that’s been difficult,” Lane has since said. “The #Joy Lane [and] #Joy Lane massacre — I don’t even know who ‘Joy Lane’ is anymore or how to pick up all the pieces of my world at this moment ... I’ve got a lot of negative comments. Some even said he should have killed me.”

Lane says that her and Stephens had dated extensively for a while and had considered marriage, but ultimately called it off due to Stephens' gambling addiction.

The daughters of victim Robert Godwin Sr., Debbie Godwin and Tonya Godwin-Baines, although devastated seemed to be working towards moving on: “Each one of us forgives the killer, the murderer," said Tonya. They told Lane that none of this was her fault in a meeting in which the group hugged, prayed, and discussed their trauma.

But another daughter, Brenda Haymon, felt otherwise. “All I can say is that I wish [Stephens] had gone down in a hail of 100 bullets,” she said. “I wish it had gone down like that, instead of him shooting himself.”